Glory (Book 5) (17 page)

Adam nodded. That's what he thought too.

*

Adam and the others walked down the stairs. They came upon Shelly. She was guarding the door. The gun gripped tightly in her hands.

"It's okay," Adam said. "They're gone. At least for now."

"It's not that," Shelly said. "It's Claire."

Adam's heart dropped. He wanted to run past Shelly and get into the library. He could imagine her there, lying on the ground with bullet holes riddled through her.

Shelly spoke again before he had a chance to move. "She went into the other room. And she hasn't come back."

"What room?"

"The one down the hall. There." She pointed.

Adam ran.

*

He came upon the classroom and barged into it. It might not have been the safest thing to do, but he couldn't help himself. He needed to make sure that Claire was okay.

"Claire," he said, looking around to find her. She didn't answer. But he could see her leaning up against the wall. "Claire!"

He ran over to her and knelt down beside her. "Are you okay?"

He shook her shoulders.

When she looked up at him, he could see tears in her eyes. Luckily, that was all. There were no wounds. No blood. He took her in his arms and hugged her.

"Claire," he said. "It's all right. Everything's okay."

"No," she said. "It's not."

"I
t
i
s
. We've scared them. It'll give us some time. Make them think twice."

"But we didn't kill them. We didn't kill
…
hi
m
."

Adam didn't know who Claire was talking about. "You mean the guy we saw yesterday at the playground?"

"No, not him."

"Then who?"

More tears came to her eyes. "Big Mike," she said. "I saw him out there. And we didn't kill him!"

Adam couldn't find anything to say to that. He had heard of Big Mike so many times before, but had never actually thought that he was going to meet him. In his imagination, he had killed him every way possible. Now Claire was saying that he was one of the men outside, and he had missed his chance.

"It's okay," he finally uttered. "We can figure it out after. Let's go back to the library and talk about what we're going to do."

Claire's eyes zeroed in on his own. "We're going to kill him," she said. "That's what we're going to do."

"We can talk about that in the library."

Adam stood up. Claire didn't.

"Promise me," she said. "Promise me that we'll kill him."

"I promise," he said
.
He looked forward to it.

*

Adam and Claire walked into the library.

"Is everything all right?" Shelly asked.

"It's fine," Adam said. He was going to say more, then realized that it might frighten Shelly. She had been in that cage with Claire. She knew who Big Mike was. She knew what those guys outside wanted. And what they'd do to get it.

"I saw Big Mike," Claire said. Adam turned to look at her. Her voice was calm. Almost robotic.

Shelly turned to her. "Outside?"

"Yes."

"Was Sam with him?"

Claire shook her head. "I didn't see him. I don't think so."

Shelly looked relieved, but also a bit upset. As though she wished he had been there so she could kill him.

That thought danced on the edge of Adam’s thoughts before Scooter interrupted it.

"What are we going to do?" the young man asked.

Adam turned to him. "I think that we should wait.”

"I think that we should kill them," Claire disagreed. "We shouldn't wait. Let's do it now while they're on the run."

The others were in agreement.

"But we'll have to go out there," Adam pointed out. "It'll be dangerous. In here, we're protected. In here, we can hide."

"But I don't want to hide anymore," Claire declared. "I'm sick of it. I want to get out there!"

If Adam was being honest with himself, he wanted to as well
.
Go out and kill them all
!
But they needed to think this through.

"We can't be stupid," he said. "We have to think about it."

Claire looked like she was going to argue about it, but didn't. "Then what can we do?" she asked.

*

They talked for a while. No one knew the best way to go about attacking the men outside. They weren't even sure that the men were still out there. Adam walked over to the window to check. He couldn't see anyone.

"They might have gone," he said.

"Or they might be hiding," Scooter said.

Claire pointed to the hallway. "Or coming into the school." That thought was frightening. It would be much harder for them to fight off the men if they wer
e
i
n
the school. "We should check.”

Though he didn't feel too comfortable about it, Adam admitted that it was a good idea. "We can split up in to groups," he said. "Then we could..."

"Hey!" a voice came from outside. "You fuckers still in there? When are you coming out? We're not going to be able to keep our old deal, though. You shot at us. So the best we can promise is to kill you quickly. Then we'll take your women. How about it?"

This was followed by laughter.

Adam walked back over to the window. He peered out of it, but couldn't see anyone.

"Fuck you!" Scooter yelled.

Once more, laughter came from outside.

Adam turned to Scooter. "That's not helping. I know that you're mad. I'm mad too. But it doesn't do anything to shout at them. We need to think about how to kill them. Nothing else!"

Scooter's face reddened.

"Look," Adam continued. "I know you're worked up. We all are. But we need to…"

"What do you say?" the man outside cut him off. "You gonna come out peacefully?"

"Why would we do that?" Adam asked. "You can't get us from out there. You've already tried. It won't work."

"Then we'll come in!"

"If you were going to do that, you would have already."

There was no response. Adam knew that he was right.

"All right…we'll just wait out here," the man replied. He didn't sound as sure as he had, but his words made sense. If they waited, then Adam and his group wouldn't be able to get any more food. It might take a week or so for that to happen. But it would happen eventually.

Adam opened his mouth to reply. He wasn't sure what he was going to say. In the end, he didn't have to.

He heard a scream. It wa
s
the
m
. The creatures were coming.

Chapter 4

Adam turned away from the window and looked at those around him. "Thos
e
thing
s
must've heard the gunshots," he said.

"At least they'll get rid of those guys out there," Scooter said.

Charles shook his head slowly. "But when they're finished, they're going to come after us.”

Scooter turned to the old man. He knew that Charles was right. Th
e
al
l
did. And they had to think of what to do about it.

"Maybe we could just keep quiet," Julie suggested, holding Emily in her arms. The little girl had gone back to burying her face in the woman’s neck, as she had done so many times before. "They might just go after the men and never know that we're here."

"But if the
y
d
o
find out we're here?" Claire asked. "What then?"

A few answers were tossed around before Adam raised his hands to quiet everyone
.
There were too many people talking. Too many opinions.

"Julie's right," he said. "We should try to hide…and hope for the best."

They hurried over to grab what was left of the ammo, then found cover. Some crouched down low against the racks of books. Others hid behind some knocked over tables.

Adam had his gun in his hand. Well, no
t
hi
s
gun. He thought of the shotgun a
s
hi
s
. But he had given that to Claire and he hadn't asked for it back. Since the shotgun was better at close quarters, he wanted her to have it.

The rifle was good enough.

When everyone was in position, Adam turned to Shelly and Claire
.
He'd never let anything happen to the
m
, he told himself.

They waited. And waited.

The screaming got closer.

*

Scooter glanced at his axe on the far wall. He felt stronger with that then the gun he was holding, but the creatures were coming; he didn't want to risk being seen. He turned his eyes away from the axe to tried to look out the window.

While he could hear the screaming, he couldn't see any of the creatures.

It wouldn't be lon
g
, he knew
.
It wouldn't be long at all.

*

The screaming got louder and louder. As did the footsteps.

It sounded like there were a lot of them out there.

*

A few creatures passed by, their arms flailing, their screams continuing.

Adam tore his eyes away from the window and caught Claire's attention
.
It didn't look as though the creatures knew where they was hiding
.
He nodded his head to tell her that he thought that everything was going to be all right, that they were going to be safe.

But it was then that one of the creatures stopped and looked through the window. A young man. Dirt and blood upon its face. Its breathing was ragged. It growled and shouted in what sounded like a bark.

As the creature grabbed at the window, Adam was certain that it was going to try to come through.

It didn't.

Instead, its head shifted from left to right as it sniffed the air. Its eyes scanned the library. It mumbled a few things in between the other noises it made.

Adam put his finger on his gun's trigger and steadied himself. He didn't want to make too much movement in case the creature saw him. But he needed to get ready in case it attacked.

He waited.

The creature growled again.

Then it turned and ran away.

*

A few more creatures passed by. Then there was quiet. Or not exactly quiet. But the screaming was no longer close. The creatures had moved around to the front of the building.

"They've gone after the men," Adam whispered to everyone.

"What should we do?" Claire whispered back. "Should we stay?"

"I don't know," he replied. "It's probably best if we let them fight the men. We can deal with whatever happens after."

"What if…"

Gunshots
.
Their noise echoed through the hallways.

Scooter stood up from his hiding spot and rushed to the door. He didn't open it. "They're inside the school," he said. "That's where they're fighting."

Adam called everyone together. "Scooter's right," he said. "They're in the school."

"So we should go get them!" Scooter said, his voice nearing a shout. "We can attack them when they won't be expecting it!"

Again, Adam thought Scooter was right. He, himself, had been going over that scenario the past couple of minutes
.
It was the only way they were going to get out of this mess
.
"I know it'll be risky," he said. "But I think we can do it."

"
I
kno
w
we can do it," Scooter claimed.

Everyone exchanged looks. They couldn't hide their fear. They also couldn't deny that they wanted to be rid of the threats that had come to their new home.

They nodded, excitement growing in their eyes.

Chapter 5

"Here's what I think," Adam said. "Claire and I will take the hall down here to the front of the school. Marianne and Scooter can go up to the second floor and come down the staircase on the other side. That'll put you two just past the entrance. That way we'll be able to shoot at them from a different angles."

"What about me?" Shelly asked, raising her hand. "Where do I go?"

As with all of the other times, Adam didn't want her anywhere near the danger. "You stay here."

"But I want to help!" she cried.

Adam felt a moment of panic
.
What if he couldn't convince her to stay?

Once more, Charles came to his rescue. The old man put his arm around Shelly. "You will be helping," he said. "You'll be helping Julie and me in here. You can guard the door while we take care of Robert and Emily."

Shelly's eyes shot around the group before settling back on Adam. She huffed, then accepted her part.

The edges of Adam's lips curled upward. Though only for a moment
.
Shelly would be out of harm's way. But they still had to get rid of the men and the creatures
.
He turned back to the others.

"Let’s go," he said.

He led them to the library door.

It was time.